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VANITY FAIR COVER MIUCCIA PRADA I have only tried to be the best. —————- VANITY ENCOUNTERS

• PORTRAITS OF STYLE •

Miuccia Prada

The clothes she makes now without shame, the family that has always come first, the politics that “a rich fashion designer cannot embark upon”. Here for you is the lady of fashion, who is still seventeen years old. by SILVIA NUCINI photos BRIGITTE LACOALBE

——————— Photo caption: FEMINIST SPIRIT Miuccia Prada, 70, Milanese. “I love women, their work, their dignity”. Her Miu Miu Women’s Tales describe the world seen through women’s eyes. ————————

Signora Prada has two unwritten rules: the first is that in an interview you can talk about anything, but she maintains the right to retract her words, and if they seem “exaggerated” then she can erase them. The second is that if her phone rings and it is either her husband or her children calling, then she will always answer. Dressed in white, with low sandals, she enters the room and establishes a luminous halo on the concrete floor of the conference room, a sort of golden joy. I confess: “I'm a little excited”. She replies: “There’s really no need.” She has been the undisputed lady of fashion since the eighties, since she started walking a mile ahead of everyone and turned the family business (her grandfather Mario had a shop in the Galleria) into a luxury empire. About which she says: “Numbers are not the priority in our existence”. I ask what the priority is, then. “Doing well the things we like: we are more interested in the ideas we believe in than in the business aspect,” she replies. Among the things she likes there is also art: the Fondazione Prada is one of the places that one absolutely must see in Milan. “I grew up loving and knowing literature and cinema, while contemporary art was a more adult passion. I studied very seriously for ten years; I tried to get to know the artists, to gain their respect by making them understand that we did not want, through art, to sell clothes. In my work I collaborate with everyone, but never with artists: I detest taking advantage of the fame of others”. And when you finally entered it, how did you find the world of art? “Full of intelligent people”. More than in the fashion world? “ I only frequent the fashion world marginally. I do not like society life”. That’s quite a serious statement. “I go out very rarely. I only go where I’m really interested. Or where, if I were not to go, it would seem rude. Society get-togethers that exist only for their own end are boring because you do not learn anything. I was like this as a girl too: I would got to a corner chatting to someone, and I do the same now”. What do you chat about? “About work. The best way to understand people is to talk about work first and then, if they interest you, to work together. This was my way of getting to know and working with great personalities”. Do you like your job? “A lot, because I love fashion and this has offset the sense of uselessness that I have felt for years: I was convinced I was dealing with a topic that many considered too frivolous”. When did you break free of this notion? “Only four or five years ago, when I realised that the people I esteemed esteemed me. And when I realised that everyone wants to be in the fashion world because it’s a place full of energy and knowledge. My love for aesthetics was stronger than my intellectual problems. Fashion is a complex process that demands intuition, knowledge, passion, curiosity and the ability to capture the moment and translate it into images and objects”. Do you think about women when you draw? “Of course, about women and men. In creating there is an aspect linked to design and another to the human, political and social part. Female dignity is something in my blood, I do not even have to think about it. Dignity and freedom – feminine and of people – are fundamental values, which can not be dismissed with a joke. If they are part of you, you can dress as you want: even a female cliché – which I have often criticised – is fine. If you are free and have spirit and dignity you can dress super sexy or even go around naked. What I do not like is the dress worn to conquer, the one you wear to please others. Women, in general, interest me a lot. I have always tried to enhance their work, for example with the MiuMiu Women’s Tales, short films directed by women who explore the theme of vanity.

Vanity is a taboo because it is not considered cultured and not even chic. Glamour is criticised, it is not liked, but in the end it attracts everyone”. Instagram is full of hyper-feminised aesthetics. Do you ever look at it? “Yes, to understand. If the model is that, that’s okay. It’s a fact. People are never wrong: if they behave in certain ways there are always reasons for this. That should be listened to? “Yes, intelligence must always confront itself and use the tools that interest people. I, for my part, with the Foundation, try to suggest that culture is not something to show off, but something that serves your life. Reading, I have learned about life through the lives of others. There: the lives of others are the thing that interests me most in the world; in the fashion shows I put some of these pieces on stage”. Is it these lives that inspire you? “In part yes, and in part my instinct for fashion. If everyone wants to use black, I use red: it’s stronger than me. Starting from this principle, I develop my thoughts, which I always express with shapes and colours. Never with slogans, because I think politics should be treated in a more complex way. And anyway, I never speak publicly about politics, I would only cause damage.” “Why?” “The rich fashion designer cannot be a politician. But I have found transversal ways – in my work subtly and in the Foundation more explicitly – to say what I think, to throw seeds that I think are worth more than rallies.” You do not want to talk about politics but I have to ask you if you like these times. “These are complex times and therefore very interesting. We are experiencing the revolution of the Internet which ensures that we are always in touch with the whole world. So you have to be careful. The result is that we are all silent, and if we speak we do not tell the truth, because someone could be offended. Or we speak by simplifying the content, with the risk of making it empty. But I think that without truth thinking cannot move forward. Having said this, I believe that the present must always be understood: stopping at a nostalgia for the past is pointless.” ——————- BOX:

THE FONDAZIONE: ART AT THE SERVICE OF LIFE

The new headquarters of the Fondazione Prada in Largo Isarco in Milan was established in 2015 with the conversion of a 1910 building destined for a distillery. The project signed by Rem Koolhaas, with Chris van Duijn and Federico Pompignoli from the Oma studio, was expanded in April with the opening of the Tower, nine floors of which six are dedicated to exhibitions, a restaurant and a bar on the panoramic terrace with a unique view of the city. It is one of the most popular addresses in the city. To celebrate the opening of the Tower, the autumn/winter 2018-19 collection was presented in the new building (below). ——————

What relationship do you have with nostalgia? “None, by choice. In fashion, however, I started with vintage – I wore only that, along with uniforms and children’s clothes: I did not like anything else. The past is very important and a source of inspiration. When someone tells me that fashion makes revolutions, it makes me smile: clothes follow or participate in the changes in society, they do not create them”. You have two children about whom very little is known publicly: were you protective with them? “I think they only found out that I am a famous fashion designer when they were grown-up. But I did not protect them, I just tried to enable them to live a normal life”. Did you succeed? “I think so, but perhaps I delude myself.” Were you very present as a mother? “My life changed totally when they arrived. Before I was always out and about; afterwards never. We would spend evenings and weekends all together, with our friends at home. New parents talk to me about their quality of time with their children, but I think quantity is actually what counts”. And then when they grew up, was it hard to let them go? “I was so intellectually prepared that I governed the process. Now I just hope they do what they like”. Do you ever wear clothes by someone else? “No”. Do you have things made just for you? “Yes, but then they see them in the company and put them into production. They usually become best sellers”. Have you ever been afraid to go out of fashion? “Every day, from day one”. And how have you fought against this? “By trying to be the best”. When some designer gets a collection right and becomes super trendy, what do you think? “That he or she’s done a good job. If someone who is good is successful, I’m happy for them. It is the successes of those who are not good that disturb me”. Prada has always anticipated everyone; what effect does it have on you to see that others are guided by your intuitions? “Now it seems that the last person to appropriate an idea becomes its inventor. But I think, I hope, that people know it's not like that”. This year you had an important birthday. “Do you want to know what I think about growing old? I’ll tell you: I do not care. For the simple fact that I feel, inside, another age”. What age? “Between 17 and 18”. What will Prada be like in 50 years? “I do not know: I’m interested in being useful and good today. I have no intention of leaving a moral heritage; I do not want to be celebrated”. Why? "I do not think I’ve done anything special. I am not a doctor and I am not a politician, which are the trades I consider to be among the noblest and most useful”. But clothes make people feel good, don’t they? “That’s a very complex question to which I have tried to find an answer: clothes are used for many things, but to say that they are a priority for humanity is really not something I feel I could do”.

Is there a reason why the partnership with your husband has held so long? “Obviously, if we have been together for so many years, it’s because there is something that unites us”.